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Young, New South Wales 1955

It was in the summer of 1955/56, I was on a large farm on the outskirts of Young. A lot of the property had been cleared for farming, but on the hill the forest had been left.

I was out shooting rabbits with three friends, we are all around 18 to 19 years old.

We were walking between the open ground and the forest above. There was this massive noise behind us which sounded like a train had come out of the forest. It was a huge kangaroo. My mates started firing .22 round at it.

I turned to my left to about 15 metres up into the forest and I was stunned to see a creature standing on two legs, maybe 5ft tall covered in brown hair, not very long hair and a face that was ‘almost’ human.

The thing I remember the most about it was looking into its brown eyes. I think the thing stunned me. Amongst my mates yelling and shooting, this thing didn’t budge. It showed no concern what so ever. It was simply standing there holding a branch and eating leaves off this branch.

All of a sudden all my friends stopped shooting and looked at me, so obviously I had said something rather direct and dramatic to get their attention, but I don’t remember what I said. All I remember is they were all looking at me like ‘what are you on about’? When I turned back to my left all I could think was “Please still be there”, and within that 15 seconds or so, when I turned back all I could see was a figure disappearing into the bush.

I had this horrible decision to make of whether to tell them what I had seen and go rushing up there after it and risk being regarded as a complete fool, or do I just shut up and I decided to shut up.

We had an uneventful time of shooting rabbits and we went back to the farm house, as Thelma had promised us afternoon tea such as scones and strawberry jam which we were looking forward to. All I was thinking as we went back to the farmhouse was “Don’t say anything, please don’t mention this, just forget it”.

When we were sitting at the table, the farmer Jim asked if we had seen anything while up there and one of my mates laughed and smirked as if he knew something and said “Frank saw something, didn’t you Frank!” and I was mortified of course, and all I remember was that Jim was at the stove and he turned around and his eyes met mine and I knew immediately that he had seen what I had seen. We never mentioned it and I left Young 6 months later.

The creature I saw had short reddish brown hair. It was about 5ft tall, but of course I was looking uphill. Its face was not particularly hairy around the main features. The face something between a monkey and a human with very large brown eyes. I can’t remember if I was looking at a male or female. The hair wasn’t particularly long, it was matted in certain places. It was standing on two legs holding a branch in its hands. I made contact with its eyes. For some bizarre reason all I was thinking was way it was just standing there so laconic when all this was going on around us with shots being fired and the Roo and voices, and this thing is eating a leaf and holding a branch like nothing matters. I felt complete disinterest from it. It was just standing there eating a leaf and then took off.

The two main things I remember that day, is when I made contact with the eyes of thing and when I made eyes with the farmer.